Football: Baty's six TDs help Rams take care of business vs. Wilton

Written by Dave Stewart
Friday, 06 November 2009 06:05

The New Canaan Rams have faced several challenges during this football season, and each time they’ve managed to persevere and get a victory.

So when the New Canaan offense sputtered on its first couple of drives and Wilton took a 7-0 lead in the opening quarter of last Friday’s game, the Rams did what they always do: They turned to each other.

“We didn’t talk about Wilton, we talked about what we can do better and what we had to fix,” senior co-captain Geoff Young said. “One thing we can do very well, probably better than any other team, is stick together when something goes wrong.”

After that first-quarter stumble, there wasn’t much that went wrong for New Canaan as the Rams scored 28 points in the second quarter behind the arm of quarterback Turner Baty and rolled to a 42-7 victory in Wilton.

Baty had his third straight big game, as the senior racked up 383 passing yards and six touchdowns, both second in the NCHS record books. Baty completed 21-of-33 passes and the Rams overcame about eight drops to get the win.

Senior co-captain Cody Newton had six catches for 132 yards and two TDs, junior Kevin Macari had five catches for 120 yards, and senior co-captain Willie Ouellette and senior Peter Park each caught touchdown passes in the rout.

New Canaan had 485 total yards to Wilton’s 262 and won by 35 points despite trailing by nearly 20 minutes in time of possession. The Rams had the ball for 13:12, while Wilton had it for 34:48.

“It’s the play-calling, I can’t say enough,” Baty said of the offensive performance. “Coach (Lou) Marinelli, Coach (Anthony) Silvestro and Coach (Daron) Shepard do a great job knowing what’s open. This is the most fun offense I’ve ever played in because they actually take our opinions. We come over to the sidelines, we tell them what we see, and they mold that to what we do. This is the first offense I’ve played in that’s been like that and I can’t say enough about the coaches. We have the best coaches, I think, in the nation. They’re awesome.”

Baty, who also led New Canaan with 57 rushing yards on seven carries, was also quick to credit the offensive line, which featured Young, Conor Hanratty, Mike Santella at center, Kalin Killinger and Sam Lavieri.

“The line did a fantastic job — I didn’t get sacked once tonight. Mike Santella was sick, wasn’t sure if he was going to play, and played out of his mind. Every snap was perfect, and the whole line did a fantastic job tonight.”

The victory kept the Rams perfect at 7-0 and set up a huge showdown in Greenwich for Friday night. Greenwich, which lost to central, 14-13, two weeks ago, is 6-1 and is looking to remain alive in the FCIAC and State Class LL playoff hunts, while New Canaan is looking to stay atop the league standings.

“Against Greenwich, it’s going to be a ridiculous game,” Young said. “It’s going to be so much fun and it’ll be close the whole time. They’re a good football team, we’re a good football team and it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s a tough challenge, but we’ve got to push through.”

While Greenwich and Central, the Rams’ next two opponents, are easy to get fired up for, facing a 2-5 Warriors squad was a different story. Young said it was a matter of treating each opponent in the same manner.

“We prepared like we’ve always prepared,” Young said. “We don’t take any game lightly. We had a pretty solid week of practice, we got guys back and we knew we could do it because we are a better football team. We made a few mistakes, but we stuck together like a good team does and got the job done.”

Wilton got the early lead when QB Jackson Wilbur connected on a one-yard scoring pass to Jeff Liebowtiz with 2:33 remaining in the first quarter. Liebowitz’s PAT put the Rams in a 7-0 hole.

The lead was short-lived, as Baty threw four TD passes in the second quarter. An 8-yard strike to Park on the first play of the frame started the scoring, and TD passes of 26 and 45 yards to Macari put New Canaan in front.

The final TD of the second quarter came on a 37-yard pass to Newton for a 28-7 halftime lead.

In the third, Ouellette caught an 8-yard touchdown pass, and Newton finished off the scoring with a 44-yard TD reception in the fourth.

Defensively, the Rams shut down Wilton after the opening quarter, as the defensive line, led by senior co-captain Cole Duncan, Chris White and Jack Atchue, harassed Wilbur all game.

Joe Costigan and Tim Robustelli had interceptions, as the Rams’ D forced three turnovers.

“Any time you can respond to a couple of shaky first drives and them scoring on us, it’s great,” Baty said. “Coach (Joe) Ditolla did a great job scheming all week and really preventing them from doing anything else after the first seven points.

“It just shows the character of our team, bouncing back after getting hit in the mouth a little bit. It was really fun to see.”